If your career objective is to become a legal professional or your dream is to help others battle legal matters, then you may want to pursue a legal profession. A lawyer must represent people, legal entities, businesses, and agencies while giving them the advice to help navigate complex legal matters. There are many perks one gets for becoming a lawyer. Amongst these include lucrative jobs and a chance to interact within the legal systems.
So what does it take to become a lawyer? The career path to becoming a lawyer is not an easy one like other fields of study. It takes a while before you are fully a legal professional but promisingly, it is a top-paying career.
Legal career overview
The duties of a lawyer may vary according to the work context, area of specialization, and employer. Some lawyers are tasked with providing legal advice while others represent clients in courts. There are other possible work contexts for legal professionals including private practice, working for a law firm, working for government agencies and corporate offices.
Duties of a lawyer may include; representing public interests, becoming a public prosecutor, public defence lawyer, corporate counsel, and more. It takes another three years of study after a bachelor’s course to qualify as an attorney. Whether you are representing a client in a private legal capacity or attending court sessions lawyers spend a considerable amount of their time researching, analyzing, and preparing cases. These duties involve, counseling clients, interpreting the laws, and presenting cases in a court of law in a persuasive manner using evidence and arguments. Other duties that a lawyer may undertake include communicating with other legal professionals and liaising between parties involved in a legal case. They may also draft and file legal documents like wills, agreements, contracts, and lawsuits. There is one character trait that is important for a lawyer to possess, working under pressure, and skills to manage stress, should possess critical thinking capabilities, and possess great interpersonal and research skills.
Legal career specialization
All lawyers are responsible for interpreting the law and representing the interests of their clients, but there are different specialty areas in law. Some lawyers may become specialists in criminal law, while others may go for family law. Other specialty areas include; tax lawyers, labour and corporate lawyers. Lawyers Gold Coast are expected to choose their area of specialization following their career dreams and passion. After qualifying as an attorney, a lawyer has plenty of choices regarding employment opportunities. Some may choose to work for a law firm, while others may seek employment from government agencies, or work independently representing clients and providing advice and counseling. Others may get employment as public defenders while others may work as state-appointed attorneys. Lawyers spend a better part of their working life either in courts or in office researching and drafting legal documents or analyzing court cases. While in courtrooms, lawyers defend clients and represent their interests whether present or absent in courts. They will push through all the legal files on behalf of the clients they are representing because they know and understand all the processes required in preparing a case. In summary, to become a lawyer, you must attain an undergraduate, pass LSAT, attain a law degree, pass the MPRE exam and finally pass the bar exams.